A line-up of highly​ respected practitioners from the world of sports strength and conditioning have been confirmed for Limerick Institute of Technology’s inaugural Sports Strength and Conditioning Conference which takes place at LIT Thurles Campus on Friday 28th April.

With practical sports strength and conditioning playing an increasingly important role in both amateur and professional sports, the strength and conditioning coach has become a central figure in preparing and advancing the fitness and performance status of individual athletes and sports teams. LIT has been to the fore in the development of strength and conditioning education in Ireland, with its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes educating students to avail of the growing employment opportunities in the area.

With a balance of information talks and practical workshops on the day, the conference will be of interest to anyone working or volunteering in coaching with sports clubs, schools and individual athletes.

With young GAA players’ welf​are very much to the fore currently and the dangers of young player burnout, Michael Kiely, a graduate of LIT’s Masters in Sports Strength and Conditioning and a former Strength and Conditioning coach with Limerick GAA will kick off the event with a topical workshop on ‘Training Load and Conditioning for the elite youth in Gaelic Games – the dangers of the GAA calendar, feasibility of training load monitoring and conditioning for the youth player’.

Ged McNamara, will present on the theme of ‘Intern to Coach’ which will detail his experience on establishing a strength and conditioning culture in Georgia, where he currently works with the national Rugby team and will discuss the evolution of his role to lead strength and conditioning coach for the European Nations Championship 2017. Ged will also highlight the merits of undertaking an internship and the opportunities it can generate.

Ian Sherwin, Former Head of Munster Rugby Academy and current PhD candidate will present on ‘Coach Education, how this education and learning is applied in practice and athlete perception of coaching behaviours and a discussion on the study titled "Talent development of high performance coaches in team sports in Ireland", while former Munster and Ireland Rugby international, Marcus Horan, a graduate of LIT’s Masters in Sports Strength and Conditioning will highlight ‘Strength and Conditioning and its development from a player’s perspective over the past decade’.

Also confirmed for the event is Aidan O’Connell, Munster Rugby Senior Strength and Conditioning Coach who will speak on ‘Managing the In-season Strength and Conditioning Programme - A Professional Rugby Perspective’, and Ed Slattery, current Irish Senior Women’s Rugby S&C coach will present a talk on the‘Transfer from Student to Elite Strength & Conditioning Coach’.

Commenting on the line-up of speakers, Head of Department of Sport at LIT, James Collins said “This conference covers from international to local, team to individual, and amateur to professional perspectives of strength and conditioning and coaching methods, which makes it a must for anyone associated with sport”.

Conference cost is €50, which will include a light lunch, €25 for students. For further information & bookings, contact Donnacha Mulcahy at: donnacha.mulcahy@lit.ie

Conference Schedule:

10.00am

Conference Opening

Mr James Collins, Head of Department of Sport, LIT

10.15am

Michael Kiely

'Training Loads & Conditioning for the elite Youth in Gaelic Games’

11.00am

Ged McNamara

‘Intern to Coach’

12.00pm

Ed Slattery

"Practical applications for minimizing injury risk”

1.00pm

BREAK

1.20pm

Marcus Horan

‘Strength & Conditioning & its development from a player’s perspective over the past decade’